The nine remaining civil servants of the 15-member team -- five abandoned due to illness, while team leader Lila Mani Poudel returned to Kathmandu on Sunday after being recalled by the government following his appointment as home secretary -- and 15 support staff went ahead despite forecasts of bad weather for Wednesday as the weather cleared in the evening. [break]
“The weather forecasts were bad for Wednesday but I had instructed Tashi Sherpa, the leader of the support staff, to wait till the evening and decide according to the prevailing weather conditions,” said Tourism Ministry Spokesman Laxman Bhattarai who gave up summit hope after catching cold and is currently stationed at the Base Camp.
“The weather forecasts have not been accurate for the past few days,” stated Bhattarai, who is coordinating the expedition and also keeping in touch with the families of the team members.
“There were similar bad forecasts for May 14 as well and around 100 climbers of big teams with access to weather forecasts aborted their plan to summit that day. But the weather turned out to be one of the best this season and many climbers of smaller teams reached the top that day,” Bhattarai added.
The team had left Camp III (7,200 m) at eight Tuesday morning and reached Camp IV (7,926 m) at two in the afternoon.
The all-civil-servant team that aims to understand climate change and the threat it poses to the Himalayas, prove that Nepali civil servants are not adventure-averse idlers, and challenge the stereotype that Nepali climb the mountains only as porters and guides. The government has doled out Rs 30 million for the expedition.
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